Public Intoxication (a/k/a "Dongs in the Wind")
A good friend of mine just beat a frivolous charge of Public Intoxication in court today. UTD Police arrested him some weeks ago I heard the whole thing unfold on my trusty police scanner. Apparently UTD PD was called out on something like a loud party. I think the deal was that when UTD PD officers arrived, no one would answer the door for them. So they decide to start looking around the area, perhaps for people who have left the party. They found my friend some distance away. I believe he was crossing a bridge between phases. In a futile search for people to harass, they requested his ID and started asking questions. He was a bit intoxicated at the time but he was only stopped by the police just because he happened to be in the area of the party, not because he was obviously drunk. I guess because the officers felt like they wanted to be productive and not go back empty-handed, they decided to arrest my friend on the charge of Public Intoxication.
Before I continue, allow me to define, legally, what Public Intoxication is in the State of Texas. Section 49.02 of the Texas Penal Code states: A person commits an offense if the person appears in a public place while intoxicated to the degree that the person may endanger the person or another. My friend was not a danger to himself or anyone else. Neither the arresting officer nor the other officer on scene had a substantive reason to arrest my friend on a charge of PI. A jury agreed and found my friend Not Guilty of the charge.
If a person is so drunk that he is a danger to himself or anyone else, do you think you could ask that person a detailed question and expect a clear, coherent, and accurate answer? Apparently UTD PD thinks so. They claimed he was a PI offender yet they spent time at the police station asking him questions about what party he just came from and even went so far as to play the common police tactic of claiming that we know about the party he supposedly came from and even went so far as to rattle off some names of people he did not know and tried to get him to spill the beans (so that they could find more people to harass, I guess). Did UTD PD actually want to violate his due process rights by getting him to confess to something while he was intoxicated and possibly not fully coherent?
So.. Im wondering. Why is UTD hiring more police officers? UTDs police officers seem so bored that they just go to great lengths to harass anyone at their whim. If you have ever been busted by UTD PD for trivial things (underage drinking, possession of drugs, being tagged as a suspicious person and etc.) Im sure you wonder to yourself Dont they have real police work to do?. I understand that these guys get bored being police officers at a (relatively) small and quiet university like UTD in such a low crime area, but I do not think that is an excuse for the things that are going here.
I hope this message does serve as an encouragement for some of you all out there there ARE ways you can fight the system and come out on top. My friend did and now UTD PD has egg on their face for thinking they could harass and intimidate him in such an unethical manner.
And.. I dont want to degenerate or generalize all of UTDs police officers.. I dont know all of them personally and I cant say that every one of them would pull the same sort of stunt. You also have to consider that they might be targeting specific types of crime, such as PI and the misc. possession charges, because of orders from higher up. I do not get the impression that UTD PD, in general, hates the public or doesnt wish to live up to the standards that most of us expect from them, but these things are happening and when they do, I feel obliged to let people know about them.